Twilight Town- One Year Later
"Take care of it, Ansem."
Riku stared at the man in red for a few seconds, glaring at him through the hood of his coat before turning to leave. How could I? he thought to himself as he rose up the staircase to the first floor of the mansion. After all she did, how could I just destroy Naminé? But...if it really must be done.
Naminé didn't even look up when Riku pushed the door open. She was sitting on her chair pulled up at the table, staring at the floor.
"Naminé, come with me," Riku instructed, his voice sounding cruel only because it was not his own; the voice of the Heartless who had taken over his body.
Naminé didn't respond and continued to stare expressionless at nothing in particular. Riku, wanting to get this over with as quickly and as easily as possible, started to briskly walk towards the silent Nobody.
"Naminé, let's go," he intentionally put some force into his words this time.
"I don't want to disappear," Naminé whispered.
Riku stopped in front of her. "What?"
"I don't want to disappear...I feel like I've only just begun to live," Naminé raised her blue eyes to meet Riku's.
"I don't have time for this," he took Naminé's small arm and pulled her to her feet.
"No! You understand, don't you? Getting another chance at life-?"
"You're barely even living as it is. Nobodies aren't supposed to exist," Riku cut her off and started forcing her towards the door by her wrist.
He had the intention of taking her outside. If he was going to destroy her, the White Room was not an ideal location.
"Please, Riku! Maybe I could have a real life! I know this contradicts everything I ever thought about myself, but this just can't be the only way. I'm...scared." Naminé was pleading now.
Riku had pulled her through the door and was struggling to force the resisting Nobody down the stairs.
"You belong with Kairi. You are Kairi. If I destroy you, you'll be able to return to her and you'll be a whole person again," Riku pulled her down the last step.
Naminé started pulling back with futile efforts. She kept begging "Please, Riku!" the whole way to the front door. Riku ignored her cries and noticed that DiZ must have returned to the basement while he had gone to get Naminé.
"You know what it's like, don't you? To-!" Naminé stopped mid-sentence to utter a short squeak as she was tugged through the front door. "To have your life just ripped away from you! Forced to become someone else!"
After taking her down the pathway outside a little bit, Riku released Naminé's arm and took a few steps back. He raised his Keyblade and took up a battle stance, even though the Nobody didn't have the physical ability to put up much of a fight.
"You knew this was coming from the beginning," he had to force himself to sound tough. He couldn't let Naminé's fighting words get to him.
"There has to be another way. Please don't do this!"
"You have nothing more to offer the world. You have to go back to where you belong," Riku could hardly even understand the words that were coming out of his own mouth.
Naminé was silent. Riku took that as her giving up and he raised his Keyblade high above his head.
Nothing to offer... The words spun in Naminé's mind. Suddenly drawing in a loud gasp, she cried out just as Riku started to bring the Keyblade down in her direction.
"I can make you look like yourself again!"
Riku's eyes widened and he dropped his Keyblade. Hitting the ground and bouncing once, it disappeared.
"What do you mean?" he stared at Naminé with an expression frozen in shock.
"I can make you look like 'Riku' again," Naminé panted, breathless with fear and relief.
"I don't...how?" Riku murmured, almost to himself.
"I might be able to. If I use your memories of your old self...with DiZ's technology, I could create a façade look for you." Naminé was really just making this all up on the spot. But when she thought about it, the idea wasn't completely far-fetched.
Riku took a moment to seriously think this all through. Riku longed to rid himself of the horrible appearance he wore of the man who had done horrible things to him in the past.
He sighed quietly and rubbed his forehead with a gloved hand, pulling back his hood. "Show me," he said finally.
This earned a relieved and grateful smile from Naminé as she nodded and ran back into the mansion with Riku following after her.
...
Destiny Islands
Penelo was greeted by the anxious faces of Denzel and Marlene, now 11 and 7 years-old. The 18-year-old placed a hand to her head and sighed as she approached the entrance to the Secret Place.
"How long has he been in there?" she asked the children.
Marlene looked down at her feet. "He's been in there since yesterday. We tried calling to him and everything, but he won't talk to us."
Penelo breathed a frustrated sigh, raised a fist and slammed it into the wooden door a few times. "Roka! Roka, please come out! We just want to talk to you!"
No reply.
"Roka, we're worried about you! Will you just talk to us?" Marlene joined in.
"We know you're still there!" Denzel cried.
There was silence for a few seconds. Penelo pressed her ear up to the wood to try and hear her friend on the other side.
"Just leave me alone," they heard Roka's muffled reply.
"Roka, are you okay? We're here to help you!" Penelo spoke in a slightly raised voice, so as to sound calming and still be heard by him.
"There's nothing you can do. How many times do I have to tell you."
"We miss you, Roka!" Marlene looked close to tears.
"Look, if you don't come out, I'm bringing your step-mom over here to talk to you," Penelo tried.
There was silence again. Then the latch on the other side of the door lifted and the door opened. Roka stood there staring into empty space. His blue fringe was long and covered one of his sky-coloured eyes. He was dressed in a white and red long-sleeved shirt that fitted him quite loosely on his unnaturally slim figure. His jeans were a simple grey colour. It was obvious that he hadn't eaten or slept properly in several days.
"Roka, I think you should go home. Talk to your step-mom and get some help." Penelo spoke in a sensitive tone.
"I don't need help," Roka looked like he was about to turn and go back inside the Secret Place.
Denzel reached out and gently grabbed his sleeve and started pulling him across the beach with the girl's following along beside them. Roka hardly bothered to protest.
"Come on, Rokie," Marlene did her best to lighten the mood.
They all climbed into a boat and Penelo took them back to the Main Island. Roka's three friends walked him to his house and said their goodbyes at the doorstep to allow Roka some space to go back home by himself.
As he opened the door, he was immediately pulled into a warm hug by his step-mother, Haruki. Her brown hair was tied back with a blue ribbon and she was wearing a white apron over a purple dress. Roka just stood there in her embrace, dazed.
"I'm so glad you're home," Haruki whispered.
Roka didn't know how to reply, or more accurately, he didn't know how to find the energy to.
Haruki let him go and looked her son over. "You look so sick...can I get you something to eat?"
Roka shook his head.
Haruki held his shoulders, "I'm going to help you get through this, okay? Just please talk to me."
Roka had nothing to say.
His step-mother was silent for a few moments as she thought. Then a hopeful smile appeared on her face and she led Roka into the living room, sitting him down at their black piano.
"How about you write a song about your feelings? It might help you work through them and understand them a little better. You're good at writing songs, aren't you?" she tried to sound as supportive as she could.
Roka stared down at the black and white keys.
"Here, I'll go make you some lunch. Go on Roka, just give it a try," Haruki said as she slowly left for the kitchen, looking back at Roka over her shoulder with a sad expression on her face.
The blue-haired boy wasn't sure what to do for a while, but then decided that it couldn't hurt to humour her. He placed his left hand on the white keys and gently pressed them down, playing a simple chord. It had been months since he'd touched his old piano, but soon, everything that his step-mother had taught him came flooding back to him. He found four low, dark sounding chords that worked well together. Then he tried to think of lyrics. He decided to just sing the first words that came to mind and make up the tune with his right hand on the higher keys as he went along. He was good at that. The lyrics were embarrassing, so he sung them quietly so that Haruki didn't hear him from the other room.
...
Don't Forget Me- Roka
I give up. I've held onto hope long enough, Now I'm done. It's gone. Can't handle the pain, it hurts too much.
And I tried so hard, To hold onto a happy memory. But I'm so tired. Don't even have the strength to cry.
Chorus: So please don't forget who I was, When I could take anything that came my way. And I'm so sorry, I just don't think I can go on another day. Give me a reason to fight, Come back to me and say everything is alright. Just please, don't forget about me. I'm still here.
The sun will shine, But it's hidden by rainclouds and darkness now. And I'm still breathing, But life is so pointless without you here,
With me. Fading, Into a place where memory, Is all I have, That's close enough to sanity.
CHORUS
It's all my fault. I should have been braver, I should've stuck by your side. But I was too late.
Chorus II:
Just please don't forget who I was, A person I might never be again. And I'm so sorry, I'm trying my best, To hold on. So be my reason to try. Promise me I'll see you again someday. I'm waiting for you, You're so far away from.
So why am I still here? Wandering aimlessly. Tell me what I can do to make things right. I'm so sorry, I'll try harder to bring you home to me. This life just isn't the same, When there's no reason to keep on living. Promise...promise, you won't forget about me. I'm still here.
...
Twilight Town
She hardly knew how she'd managed to pull it off. But she had. Naminé blinked a few times, staring wide-eyed at her creation. Using a method of turning memories into data, the young Nobody had created a perfect new look for Riku. She had taken his memories of his voice and his appearance as a 15-year-old, aged them a year, and then transferred the data onto Riku's body. All by using DiZ's computer and her powers. She couldn't help but feel proud of herself.
"Well? Did it work?" Riku stopped, hearing the sound of his new voice and answering his own question.
Naminé jumped out of her thoughts and nodded a few times. "It's perfect. You're 'Riku' again," she smiled.
Riku pulled at a few strands of his long silver fringe. Although his hair had been that length before he let the Heartless take over his body, he had been wearing a blindfold the whole time and had never stopped to notice how long his hair had become over the past year. "It grew so much. I kinda like it this length, though. Thanks, Naminé."
The blonde blushed a little, "Oh, it was nothing really. I mean, if DiZ can do something like that, anyone can, right?"
"Funny, for a second there, it almost sounded like you were insulting him. But you'd never do that, would you?" Riku smirked.
"No, of course not!" Naminé giggled, playing along.
Both seemed to have forgotten that not long before, Riku had been trying to kill the poor girl. But Naminé was able to put it behind her and Riku was too preoccupied with his new look to turn it over in his mind. Either way, Naminé was glad that Riku was acting more like a friend now.
"Alright, now that it's almost time for Sora to wake up, there's another special person that we need to wake up first."
"Hm? Who?" Riku tilted his head slightly.
Naminé blinked, "What are you talking about...Kira!"
"Oh yeah...Almost forgot about her."
Naminé placed a hand to her forehead. "You're impossible, sometimes. Come on, let's go."
...
Naminé stood in front of the three white pods, all lined up side-by-side. Kira, Donald and Goofy. After almost a whole year, it was time for them to wake up. Deciding not to wait any longer, Naminé stepped forward and placed a hand on the outside of Kira's pod. Immediately afterwards, the white container clicked open, it's walls beginning to unfold with a quiet whirring sound. The girl inside was slowly revealed. When the pod was fully open, Kira, who had been floating in mid-air, finally found gravity again and her black shoes rested on the floor of her container.
Blinking her eyes a few times, Kira finally woke after a long year of sleep. She reached her arms up as high as she could, stretching and yawning. "Five more minutes," she mumbled in her sleepy daze.
"It's been a whole year, and she's still tired," Riku scoffed, a small smile on his face.
"Did we save the worlds yet, Mickey?" Kira stumbled out of the pod and knelt down on the floor.
Yawning again and waking up completely, she looked up at the people who she had only ever met once before. "Oh, you're that girl who put me to sleep," she looked at Naminé, getting to her feet. Having aged a year, her voice was still a little high-pitched, but it had lost the young, sweet tone it once had.
"Wait, you haven't lost your memory, have you?" Riku folded his arms in concern.
Kira shook her head; her longer purple hair, that now reached to the middle of her neck, swayed a little. "No, no, it's coming back to me now. Tried to save the world, failed, made a few friends, lost a few friends, then finally, wasted a whole year of my life by sleeping it away. Does that about sum it up?" Kira was smiling, even though her words were quite grim.
"Well, that's a depressing way to put it, but yeah, more or less," Riku replied, shaking his head at her strange mood.
Kira looked down at her vest and shorts that were now too small for her by a size or two. She pulled at her curly purple hair, "Guess I'm fifteen now, huh?"
Naminé nodded and breathed a quiet laugh. "Yep, same age as me."
Everyone stayed silent for a few seconds.
Then Kira loudly clapped her hands together. "Well! Guess I better get going, then!" She opened a Corridor of Darkness.
Riku stepped forward, "Wait, what are-?"
"You too...um..." she paused, trying to remember his name, "Riku! Tsuki's in Hollow Bastion, so hurry up and get over there! I'll get Roka and meet you in The World That Never Was!" Kira disappeared with a quick wave.
Naminé slowly turned her head to exchange questioning looks with her silver-haired companion.
"I guess it's safe to say that long sleeps like that do weird things to people," Riku said in a small voice. "Makes me worry about how Sora's turned out."
You can now find the first part of Roka's song, Don't Forget Me, on my WornAndOneWinged Youtube channel! It's just a short video of me playing it on my keyboard. :3
